For the second time in the last month, the transformer on my street went haywire and the power went out on our street for a few hours.  Fortunately, we had plenty of flashlights and candles (old school FTW) to keep the house well-lit enough; unfortunatley, my phone’s battery is about to die, and there was no available power. DIY weblog Tinkernut shows us how to power your phone with the heat of one of those candles, thanks to thermodynamics, thermoelectric effects, and a Peltier effect device.

This project involves using a Peltier device taken from a USB drink chiller (which follows the 1st law of thermodynamics of heat flowing from a hot object to a cold object to create energy), a can of cooking fuel, and an inexpensive AA phone charger to assemble this new device. A ton of electronics experience is not necessary to take on this project, so it makes for a great weekend tinkering venture. Check out the video below to see the device in action, because nothing could be just as awesome as juicing up your phone while roasting some marshmallows for s’mores!

[Thanks Tinkernut, links 1 & 2]